Remco

Conduct a fieldtrip to a nearby rural community. Visit the community and talk with local residents and authorities about the impact of the transformation of the community (e.g. rural tourism, abandoning of cultivation, abandoning of local varieties, reduction of farm land, etc.). Research alternative practices. Learners also meet with local and non-local activists and authorities and gather secondary data on the region and the main problems. Each group prepare a report of findings and conclusions drawn.

Introduce the concept of grassroots innovation and some of their examples such as l’atelier paysan (or others in the field of seeds, rural development, makerspaces, etc.). Discuss what grassroots innovation means and how it can be applied to the case study.

Students identify a social justice issue (e.g. gender, ethnic or LGBT+ discrimination, homelessness, destruction of valued environments). Identify actors/stakeholders involved in this issue from different backgrounds or areas of expertise (e.g. sociologists, ecologists, economists) as well as the people who are subject to discrimination. Develop a role-play exercise, for a specified age range, in which these actors come together to discuss and attempt to resolve a particular scenario caused by this social justice issue. Create role cards for the different actors in the role-play.
Conduct the role-play (either with fellow students or a group of a given age range) and report on the outcome.

Identify an example of disadvantage or injustice for your students to debate. Ask them to take sides that they wish to support. Try, as far as possible, to have two similar sized groups. Ask each group to investigate and support the opposing view to the one that they initially wished to support. Run the debate with speakers and conclusions as normal. Ask the group how it felt to support the opposing view. Did they change their own opinions in any way?

Ask the learners to watch a documentary such as Joe Barker’s (2017) In our hands: seeding change about local initiatives to overpass current industrial food systems and, if possible, attend a local agro-ecological fair, producer, cooperative, etc. and learn about it. In class, discuss how shifting consumer patterns can change things and explore barriers to change. How we can change our food provision in our community? Who are the actors that can help us to make this shift?

Trailer In our hands, seeding change

In small groups students create a short video, role-playing an interview with a person who suffers disadvantage (possibly drawing on research conducted under Attentiveness for SDG 16). Be sure to express how it feels to be the disadvantaged person (e.g. impact on health, wellbeing, relationships, self-esteem, living conditions, economic and social opportunities).

Learners take note of all food products eaten in a weekend e.g. what products, where they come from, which varieties they have eaten and their price. They then research the impact of the production and transportation of these items. Share results and discuss the impact of having cheap food on natural environments and local communities. Are your income and inequality critical issues in environmental injustice? What strategies (if any) were developed to cope with budget limitations during the exercise? Can you identify/imagine other strategies?

Students identify one example of disadvantage from (a) a local context and (b) a global/ international context. For each example, investigate the reasons behind this disadvantage and the effects that it has on those people and on others. Explore ways to overcome such disadvantages.

The learners identify different “global food products” that are commonly consumed in their country and produced in different countries in different continents (both in the global north and south). They research how this product is grown, in which places, with what seeds, etc. and the impacts it has in the natural habitats and their local communities; how they “travel” to their local supermarket, etc.

Results are shared and learners discuss the implications in terms of sustainability, both environmental and social (e.g. limits, structural flaws, change needs). Learners discuss in small groups opportunities to contribute to improvements in the chain (both production, distribution and consumption) that could tackle some of these issues and what conditions should change.

Either individually or in small groups students identify a social justice issue or ‘cause’ (possibly one discussed earlier, see Attentiveness). Investigate as many ways as possible to promote, support, engage with or fight for this cause, e.g. campaigning (How?), writing (Who to? Why?), voting (What level of representation?), pressure groups (Which ones?) and other political structures.